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By Hannah Coleman
At conference, I had the privilege of listening to Rita Tateel, founder of the Celebrity Source. The Celebrity Source is a booking agency that is all about matching celebrities to PR, marketing and advertising campaigns and special events for both corporate and nonprofit clients. Rita has been working with celebrities for almost two decades and has an established celebrity community where she is viewed as trustworthy and reliable. Even though she is established in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry, her roots are in nonprofit, social work and child development. Although the fields seem completely unrelated, she credits her schooling for her success. According to Rita, working with celebrities is not always a great experience, but her background in child development helps her deal with them. “There is an art and science to it,” says Rita, “sometimes, working with a celebrity is like working with a child.” Rita emphasized that the key to working with celebrities is making them feel secure. Although they appear to be powerful, established and polished, celebrities are “some of the most insecure people on the planet.” So how do the rich and famous become insecure despite having it all? “People take advantage of celebrities – and as a result, they become insecure. They don’t know who to trust,” says Rita. This insecurity is what leads to increasing demands and difficulty when working with celebrities. Our job as public relations professionals is to make them feel secure. Rita told a story about a time where she was meeting with a celebrity who had just walked off the red carpet after facing dozens of paparazzi with a booger hanging out of his nose. Rita was the first one to tell him about it and from then on it was smooth sailing. This established a comfortable relationship and the infamous “Booger Principle”. On top of building trust, you must always be prepared. When dealing with celebrities, time is their most valuable asset. Always have a plan, a backup plan and a backup to the backup plan. If a celebrity feels their time is being wasted, the relationship will be damaged. “Ask for the least amount of time needed to complete your objective,” says Rita. There are a few tricks to getting celebrities to say yes to your event. First of all, make sure the event matches the celebrity. For example, don’t bring Justin Bieber to an event for senior citizens, bring him to an event for spring break. Celebrities will be more inclined to say yes to events that are relevant to them. Tom Hanks did this with a handful of movies he starred in. He started to support and care about charities that were relevant to the characters he was portraying in movies.When he starred in Philadelphia, he began to support AIDS related causes. Apollo 13 inspired him to support NASA. Saving Private Ryan inspired him to contribute to veterans associations. He became emotionally invested in these causes. It is also important to be aware of what media coverage the celebrity is currently getting. If they are involved in a scandal, they are going to want to minimize their time in the spotlight. Relationships are the key to establishing a strong celebrity network. When you know the publicist or the wife or the personal assistant, your network is strong and more personal. However, even if you do know all those people, you have to determine which channel is most appropriate for your offer. The final, and most important thing to consider when booking a celebrity is cost. Booking a celebrity is VERY expensive. They are expecting at least six figures, so don’t bother offering if you can’t afford that expense. Rita broke it down by level of fame:
At the end of the day, you have to be aware of their wants and needs – it has to be a smooth experience. It is our job to handle all the logistics and make sure all of the details covered. If we make the experience memorable for the celebrity, there is a strong chance a significant relationship will develop.
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By Samantha Ross
Nikki Barjon owns her own company called The Barjon Group located in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of the company’s services include public relations, creative and relationship marketing, communication, advertising and much more. Some of Nikki’s clients include T.I, Nike, Puma as well as many other celebrities and athletes. About 98% of her clients are referred to her by others. Nikki used game plans for sports such as football and referenced this terminology towards life and success. The first game plan she talks about is knowing your role. Nikki’s role is being the coach. As the coach, you are the strategist, the problem solver and a miracle worker. “I can never afford to just think about one side.” You always have to think about which way do we go, why do we go this way, and what happens if we go this way. Nikki gave a lot of great advice! Of the advice she gave, one of the tips was to know who you’re playing for. This is where you do research on the company. Find out what they do and really understand it. Go somewhere that aligns with who you want to be. Know your competition. Everyone is going to try and outdo everyone they work with. Know what they do well. Know what they don’t do well. Excel in what they don’t do well in and take chances that others won’t. Nikki talked about points that are vital to your success, and some of those are based on your experience that works, guide your moves, and makes sure that you have a plan. All of these points were part of the playbook. One thing that really stuck with me is how she kept saying how anyone going into sports PR should know that it is high stakes, fast paced and intense. You need to stand out from your competition.You need to show that you were made for this, and you’re not going to back down. Nikki has had a lot of experience working with well known celebrities. You could tell that she’s very passionate about her career, and she’s open to talking to anyone about how you can be as successful as her. Nikki can be reached at [email protected].  By Latisha Ellison Instead of spending Father’s Day with his daughter, Bill Conner spent the day with the 21-year-old man who received Abbey’s heart; Abbey was an organ donor. When she passed away suddenly in January, her organs, eyes and tissue were used to save the lives of four men ages 20-60. To honor his daughter, Bill biked from his home in Milwaukee, WI to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. and made a stop in Baton Rouge, LA to meet the man who received his daughter’s heart. The Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA) spent weeks planning the meeting, securing media coverage and ensuring the meeting went off without a hitch. The result? A viral video showcasing the benefits of organ donation and a father reunited with his daughter. The LOPA team was at PRSSA 2017 National Conference and shared their success with us during their breakout session. A few key takeaways to be applied to any nonprofit experience: Know your brand and tell its story LOPA is responsible for organizing and advocating for organ and tissue donation, and one of the most important parts of its job is educating the public and debunking organ donation myths. Knowing your brand and its mission is crucial to storytelling and gaining that brand recognition.This meeting allowed LOPA to tell the story of how one young woman was able to save four lives through organ donation. Be flexible Flexibility is a good quality to have regardless of your profession or industry, but utilizing it in nonprofit is imperative. Most likely, you are the only communications person at your nonprofit, so you are wearing many hats. The LOPA team had three main women working on this project, so it was up to them to adjust when things didn’t go as planned. Bill called one of the women the morning of the meeting to tell her that he would be there much sooner than expected. The team had to get to the meeting spot, call the media and other important people to try to get them there hours before they were originally expected to be there. You never know when something will go wrong or not go as planned, so you have to be ready to change the course of action when called upon. Build relationships PR is all about relationship building no matter what your industry is. For this project, one LOPA team member reached out to a friend who is in the medical field to borrow her stethoscope, so Bill could hear his daughter’s heart. That same friend also loaned them a Doppler which allows everyone to hear the heartbeat, as well as a recorder so the heartbeat could be recorded and given to Bill to always have with him. This relationship allowed a special moment to last forever and created a visual that would be shared around the world. Thank you to the LOPA team for sharing an incredible story and insights that can be applied across the board.  By Sarah Heber
Saucony’s Vice President of Public Relations, Sharon Barbano, spoke with conference attendees about how to find their own strength within the field of PR. Thus, accurately naming her session #IFindYourPRStrong. Saucony is a brand of athletic wear and is mainly recognized among runners for its quality for distance racing shoes. Barbano shared seven principles to live by to find your own “PR Strong.”
Barbano ended her session with one quote that will stick with me for a long time: “Before you have anything else in PR, you have to have yourself.”  By Holly Disch As a senior in the PR sequence, I have been struggling to know exactly what I want to do in public relations, and decide if public relations is truly my calling. What I do know is I want creativity and I want my mind to be challenged no matter which career path I end up in after graduation. Going to PRSSA National Conference in Boston sounded like a great idea to see different field opportunities, and maybe find a place for myself in PR. When I saw the session titled Beyond the PR stunt: Creativity in PR job you didn’t know existed, I was immediately interested. As much as I love the idea of PR and storytelling, it seems the same newsletters, press releases, and social media content are being created daily, just with different brands. So I needed to know how to find those creative jobs that will not stick me in a rut. In this session, there was not a specific creative job lists, or ways to get into creative areas of PR, but rather painted the bigger picture of creative jobs that exist. These bigger picture ideas included:
Although this idea is picturesque, I didn’t get an idea of where I can truly find creative jobs in PR without being a design, art, or creative person. He made it clear, PR is everywhere, but I was kind of left unsure of where to find these creative jobs he flaunted in the title. After some short anecdotes, he ended up giving us a useful formula to finding a place in a PR career that we will love. This formula was to know a subject, have a skillset and to know your audience. The underlying principles of PR hold true regardless of subject or audience. Creativity will come naturally when you are doing PR for something you are either passionate about, or have a strong knowledge about. This is where I, and a lot of people, struggle to know where to begin. Expertise starts with your own interests, and this will help anyone find a PR job they love, and hopefully allow you to be fully open and creative to telling that brand’s story! Overall, this session clarified that PR is everywhere, and I need to understand my interests to find a PR job I love. Although, I wish it was more about different creative jobs within PR, these tips helped further ignite my interest in the public relations field.  |
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